FINAL CONFIRMATION/FIRST COMMUNION EXAM 2015 You need to call the office (591-6924) during office hours (see bulletin cover) and request an appointment time. A parent must accompany you to this exam. The exam will be oral and not written. There are 5 questions which you must satisfactorily answer. QUESTION #1: What is the Sacrament of Confirmation? (see the notes below regarding the Sacrament of Confirmation) QUESTION #2: Tell me WHY you want to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. QUESTION #3: Tell me what the following Latin inscriptions mean and why do we have them in our Holy Innocents church. VOX IN RAMA AUDITA EST PLORATUS ET ULULATUS MULTUS. ECCE MATER TUA QUIS UT DEUS QUESTION #4: What is the people's response to these words of the priest at Mass? PRAY BROTHERS AND SISTERS THAT MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS MAY BE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THE ALMIGHT FATHER. (HINT: you can find the response in the Sunday Mass guide, which you may take home with you in order to study the Mass prayers). QUESTION #5: What is the people's response to these words of the priest at Mass? BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, BEHOLD HIM WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD, BLESSED ARE THOSE CALLED TO THE SUPPER OF THE LAMB. (HINT: you can find the response in the Sunday Mass guide). NOTES ABOUT THE SACFRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION The exam will cover anything on this study sheet, including the links. Make sure you have studied everything (get someone to help you if necessary). Please keep in mind that the Sacrament of Confirmation is NOT: when you BECOME AN ADULT CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN when you CHOOSE FOR YOURSELF to be a Catholic Christian a GRADUATION CEREMONY or SOME SPECIAL RECOGNITION because you attended some classes If your answer is anyone of the above responses, YOU WILL FAIL THE TEST. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Confirmation IS: “the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost” (1302). God wants to do for you what He did for the apostles on that first Pentecost which took place 50 days after Jesus Christ bodily rose from the dead. READ ABOUT THAT FIRST PENTECOST IN YOUR BIBLE: Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2 (read the entire chapter here). On that first Pentecost, the cowardly apostles who hid themselves in the upper room after Jesus' death on the cross, became courageous messengers to everyone they met that the same Jesus who had been crucified on Good Friday, was now alive again. His risen body could pass through walls, for example, as it did when Jesus first appeared to the apostles on that first Easter Sunday night in the upper room. The upper room is described in the Gospels as a spacious, upstairs room (hence, the name, “upper room”), where Jesus had His LAST SUPPER with His apostles: It was in this special place that Jesus: -instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (“This is my body; This is the chalice of my blood”) -instituted the Sacrament of the Priesthood (He made His apostles His first priests when He said, “Do this in memory of me”) -instituted the Sacrament of Confession (this happened on the evening of His res- urrection when He appeared to the apostles and told them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”) [John 20:22-23] It was in this same place, this upper room, that God the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles who were gathered around Mary, the Mother of Jesus. They were never the same again. This is what God wants to do for you when you receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation is your own, personal Pentecost. Confirmation is THE SACRAMENT OF “STRENGTHENING.” That's exactly what the word CONFIRM means. It comes from the LATIN, confirmare, which means to strengthen, to fortify, to make stronger in THE FAITH YOU RECEIVED ON THE DAY OF YOUR BAPTISM. This is why it is said that Confirmation completes Baptism. You can get to heaven without receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, but it will be very hard. Let's say you want to go on a long trip from Los Angeles to New York City. You have a choice between a skateboard and a 2014 Cadillac Escalade SUV. Of course, you'd take the Escalade because you want to get there as safely and efficiently as possible. That's what it's like to get to heaven strengthened by the Sacrament of Confirmation. What will Confirmation do for you, then? Confirmation gives you TWO POWERS, one is for you and one is for others. 1- You will be strengthened to live a holy life in an unholy world as well as the courage to sacrifice and suffer for Christ. Christians are called to be “countercultural,” that is, to go against the flow, to be different. Standing up for Christ and His Church makes us different. Confirmation gives you the added strength to do just that. 2- You will be strengthened by God the Holy Spirit to SPREAD and DEFEND the Catholic faith by word and deed. In addition, Confirmation will imprint upon your soul a SPIRITUAL MARK called a “character” which marks YOUR TOTAL BELONGING TO CHRIST and YOUR ENROLLMENT IN HIS SERVICE FOREVER. To read more about the Sacrament of Confirmation, go HERE.
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